Did you know Virender Sehwag came knocking on Sourav Ganguly's door at 5.30 am?

Virender Sehwag

Ever heard of a player going to meet his captain in the wee hours of the morning after failing with the bat the previous day? Virender Sehwag did just that when he got out early against Sri Lanka in the 2001 tri-series final at Colombo. This was revealed by then India captain Sourav Ganguly in the to-be-released book, Eleven Gods and a Billion Indians by Boria Majumdar.

Close on the heels of his 70-ball century against New Zealand on August 2 when he and skipper Sourav Ganguly put on 143 for the opening wicket, Sehwag went into the final with his tail up.

However, after Sri Lanka piled up 295 for five in their 50 overs, Virender Sehwag was the first Indian wicket to fall when he was run out for four with the Indian total on five. Ganguly perished on the same score when he slashed one to point off Dilhara Fernando.

The Indians folded up for 174 and the ODI final was lost. "He played a rank bad shot in the final and I was very upset with him. We lost the final to Sri Lanka and the next morning he came to see me at 5.30 am before he left for the airport on his way back to Delhi. I was in no mood to talk to him and said I will call him later. He needed to know his captain was not pleased with the way he batted in the final," Ganguly is quoted as saying in the book, subtitled, The On and Off the Field Story of Cricket in India and Beyond.'

In less than a year, Sehwag was opening for India in Test cricket as well. The book is spiced with controversy with Majumdar also revealing how former skipper Mohd Azharuddin was denied tickets to watch the India v Pakistan 2017 Champions Trophy group stage match at Birmingham where he was to do some television work for an Indian news channel. A former teammate of Azharuddin volunteered to approach the International Cricket Council (ICC) for the tickets, but the ICC, according to Majumdar in the book, "had refused to entertain the request simply because it was Mohammad Azharuddin."

Catch up on all the latest sports news and updates here. Also download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get latest updates